Rare Criminal Trial of a 4-Star Admiral Heats Up with Allegations of Lies, Affairs and Competing Stories

The company accused of being part of a bribery scheme along with a retired four-star Navy admiral who was arrested in May has fired back against the allegations and the indictments of its two top executives in a new court filing that seeks to split their case.

Robert Burke, who as an admiral served as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa from 2020 to 2022, was arrested on federal bribery charges May 31. In a motion filed in federal court July 19, lawyers for the executives of a leadership training company argued they were deceived by Burke and that a $100 million contract they spent years pursuing with the Navy seems to have never materialized.

The request to split or "sever" their cases comes less than two months after federal prosecutors arrested Burke as well as the executives -- Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger, co-CEOs of Next Jump -- on allegations that they gave him a cushy job in exchange for the four-star's work to steer contracts to the company.

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Lawyers for Kim and Messenger said that they "intend to offer evidence at trial that, in an effort to influence contracts between [Next Jump] and the Navy, Burke may have deliberately and repeatedly misled [the pair] to believe that he could lawfully engage in employment discussions."

Meanwhile, Burke's attorney says the duo's filing is full of lies and denies a bribery scheme altogether in a motion filed Wednesday.

If Burke is convicted, he would become only the second U.S. admiral to be found guilty of committing a federal crime while on active duty.

The retired admiral "contends that there was never any bribery scheme at all … and that any statements by Kim to the contrary were false statements which will be impeached at trial," according to the court filing.

However, Burke's motion also noted that, while he "completely disagrees with the false factual assertions," his team "intends to file a response joining" the motion to separate him from Kim and Messenger's trial.

Although the scope of alleged corruption and the number of actors is small, the case easily conjures parallels to the Navy's far-reaching scandal commonly known as "Fat Leonard," which goes back more than a decade. Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis, owner of the defense contracting business Glenn Defense Marine Asia, was accused of amassing a network of at least 200 Navy personnel that ranged from admirals to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents to help bilk the service out of at least $35 million from inflated and fraudulent contracts for services while in port.

While nearly three dozen people were charged in connection to that case and 22 pleaded guilty, many of the convictions later fell apart on appeal and Leonard himself briefly escaped custody to flee to Venezuela.

The $100 Million Contract

The history between the Navy and Next Jump, a company that largely specializes in training executives on leadership, goes back several years. The company was awarded its first Navy contract in early 2018 for around $2 million. A second contract followed later that year for $10 million "to train part of the Navy workforce," according to court documents.

At the time, the Navy was reeling from a pair of deadly at-sea collisions in the Pacific Ocean that not only killed nearly 20 sailors but also exposed a problematic culture that was willing to ignore years of warnings about exhausted sailors, poor training and apathetic leaders.

Burke was Next Jump's main point of contact for the Navy and, about a year into their work together, Kim decided to reach out "to explore other ways [his company] could help the Navy train its staff," the court filing said.

What eventually emerged by fall of 2019 was a large, $100 million proposal based on the idea that Next Jump had an ability to "'develop people faster than anyone,' which would provide the Navy with a 'new competitive advantage' and effectively 'upgrade' the Navy," the motion by the two executives said, citing emails between Burke, Kim and Messenger.

That November, Burke told the pair that the newly confirmed chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, had signed off on the plan, according to an email cited in the motion.

"All of these events -- the first Navy contract, the second Navy contract, Burke's early advocacy around the potential $100 million contract, and Burke's communication to [the two co-CEOs] about [Gilday]'s approval -- occurred before any of the allegedly improper job discussions at the heart of the indictment," the motion argues.

Another Meeting and Burke's 'Companion'

By November 2019, as Kim and Messenger say they were being told the Navy's top leader was on board to award them their biggest contract yet, the pilot program they were operating had run its course and Next Jump had no more active contracts, according to prosecutors.

The indictment suggests that the big $100 million contract they were working on to replace the smaller trials also never came through. Kim "believed that the pilot program could have turned into a $100 million Navy contract for [Next Jump] but, as he later stated, 'Many things derailed our Navy engagement.'"

In their court motion, Kim and Messenger say they were concerned when an aide said that, "given Adm. Burke's role and the upcoming contracting actions, it is best that Next Jump and he not have contact at this time," which occurred around the same time they were told Gilday backed the project.

After five months of silence, Burke reached out to the pair and in a meeting said he wanted to be an "ambassador/custodian" for the company despite still being on active duty, Kim's email summary of the meeting filed with the court said.

Burke told Kim that this relationship was allowed because Next Jump was not "a defense contractor (as in selling weapons, plane parts, etc.)," according to the email.

The relationship between the pair of CEOs and Burke continued, and in July 2021 they met for lunch in Washington, D.C., along with a woman Burke told Kim and Messenger was "a senior official in the Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy," according to the two executives' court motion.

The woman was referred to by prosecutors as a civilian employee in the Navy based in the U.S. and "a companion of Burke's."

During that meeting, prosecutors allege that Kim and Messenger proposed that Burke use his official position to steer a new contract to Next Jump while also offering the soon-to-be-retired admiral a job with a salary of "at least $500,000 per year plus stock options and other related compensation."

Meanwhile, Kim, according to his own email summary of the meeting, saw the woman as Burke's "close friend/colleague" who joined the meeting "as a friend."

"That the female naval official at the lunch meeting was Burke's 'companion'... was entirely unknown at the time to [Kim and Messenger]," the motion argues and notes that they "had no reason to believe the senior naval official was also Burke's 'companion' because they knew that Burke was married to a different woman."

Burke's lawyer, Tim Parlatore, confirmed to Military.com that the admiral was in an "intimate relationship" with the woman while he was in the beginning stages of divorce but that, since then, he and his wife had reconciled.

The Washington Post was the first to report that detail.

In their motion, lawyers for Kim and Messenger argue that the presence of Burke's romantic partner undermines the allegation that they were conspiring to bribe the admiral and that several cited email meeting summaries "provided to over 70 sophisticated [Next Jump] investors ... are wholly inconsistent with allegations that [they] acted corruptly."

Exaggerations and False Statements

In his own motion, Burke's lawyer argues that "Kim is an entrepreneur who is prone to exaggeration and, in many cases, outright false statements."

The retired admiral's lawyer argues that Kim's emails to investors, documents that underpin many of the arguments their motion makes, are "false statements" and the pair are "attempting to falsely blame Adm. Burke for telling them that everything was permissible."

Kim and Messenger's motion does note that, after that meeting in July, their company obtained another contract for $355,000 for training that they conducted in January 2022.

In May, Burke told them that he got the Navy's sign-off to begin "earnest discussions" with them about taking a job after retirement, according to the motion by Kim and Messenger. He was eventually extended an official employment offer with a $500,000 base salary and started in October 2022.

However, the pair's filing notes that this salary was "more than the entire $355,000 contract Burke allegedly helped to secure" -- a point that seems to suggest that, even if the job were a bribe, the company lost out on the deal.

Burke would work in the job for only several months though, according to the court filing by the two executives. In January, he resigned, citing "an unexpected recurrence of a previous medical condition [Burke] had thought to have been in remission," an email in the court record said.

He was indicted just over four months later.

According to the Justice Department, if convicted, Burke faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, while Kim and Messenger each face a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Related: Feds Arrest Former Navy Europe Commander Alleging Bribery Scheme that Led to $500,000 Civilian Salary